Well, actually, I gotta believe it *is* related to DirecTV, even if it is not isolated to their equipment. It’s not my TV that causes the volume altnations. Nor is it my DirecTV box or dish. If that were the case, the volume would not be selective to individual channels, and ir would not have volume spikes on TV commercials. It would not make my local channels that I get from DirecTV my loudest channels, as my local reception is lousy. It’s not my multiplexor/switch, as it’s powered, and the problem duplicates on all out feeds.
This is going on, either by the channels sending a low volume feed to DirecTV that they pass on to the satellite, or when the channel signals get to DirecTV, they are not being equally boosted, before being beamed up to the sattelite.
It seems ulikely that it is a matter of weekend transponders, or otherwise the video for the channels would be equally weak.
At least that is my assessment, from the outside, as it were.
Andf if my assessment is correct, it is something that can be fixed “on the ground”, without involving any “work” or replacement to the sattelite system.
Good luck with resolving your problem. I had Direct TV for a little over two years and let’s just say I went back to cable (Comcast).
For one thing anytime it rained or snowed heavily, I completely lost my signal. I had the volume problem too.
But the real kicker was after the dish had just gone out of its two year warrantee (I’m talking about a month or so) I started seeing pixilation (scrambling) of some channels but not all (and it really ticked me off that it was mostly on the premium channels).
I spent several hours on the phone with Direct TV and several times I got unexpectedly and unexplainably disconnected and had to call back only to have to explain the problem all over again to a new technician.
Finally a technician had me go through all sorts of setting and diagnostic tests; had me check all the cable connections and the site line of the dish and he determined my dish was going bad.
So I asked what next?
He said I’d have to call Best Buys where I bought the dish and schedule a service call. I did that and was told by Best Buy that I’d have to pay a $50 minimum service call fee up front just to have someone come out and that I couldn’t do that by phone but had to physically come into the store to schedule the service call.
I’ve had a few minor issues with Comcast – more so with the internet service than the cable TV but nothing nearly as aggravating as what I went through with Direct TV.